Morgan Freeman to create TV show on US marshall Bass Reeves

The actor has been attempting to get the life story of the historical figure on the big screen for years

Written by Rykesha Hudson
19/05/2015 11:21 AM

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BLACK JUSTICE: Bass Reeves one of the first black US marshals

HOLLYWOOD ACTOR Morgan Freeman has teamed up with television network HBO to tell the story of black history figure Bass Reeves.

Reeves one of the first black US Marshals and was a legendary lawman in the Oklahoma territory who brought thousands to justice.

For decades, Bruce Almighty star Freeman has been attempting to get the life story Reeves on to the big screen.

Now by partnering with HBO, he is helping to finally produce this story to actuality for an upcoming event miniseries for the small screen.

“This is a black man in America’s legendary Western history who has been totally overlooked. Any chance I get to revisit historical moments of our country is important to me,” Freeman said.

There's been no word on casting nor when the project can be expected. Although Freeman could play Reeves in his older years, as he was in his 70s when he died, as is Freeman currently.

Written by John Sayles, based on Art T. Burton’s biography Black Gun, Silver Star: The Life And Legend Of Frontier Marshal Bass Reeves, the untitled event miniseries tells the story of the great Bass Reeves who escaped from slavery during the civil war, fleeing into Indian territory where he honed his firearm skills.

He went on to become one of the first black US deputy Marshals in the Oklahoma territory deputised by the legendary “hanging judge” Isaac C. Parker.

With his heroics — a master of disguises, a great shot and one of the most effective lawmen in Indian territory who brought in more than 3,000 outlaws and killed some 14 – Reeves is rumored to be the inspiration for The Lone Ranger character who could not be cast in that era as a black man, so he was made into a white man with a black mask.

Morgan has been trying to bring Reeves’ story to the screen for more than two decades, after first being introduced to it in 1993 by Neil Travis, editor of Morgan’s directorial debut, Bopha!

It woulld be a dream come true for Freeman who describes himself as “a Western fanatic.”

He grew up watching Westerns and loved the genre but noticed something odd: “Wait a minute, who was there — there were a bunch of white people and a few Mexicans,” Freeman recalled his childhood impressions.

“I always wanted to do my own Western that was going to be it,” he said of the Bass Reeves project.